


Under the Same Roof

by sebastian2017



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Awkward Dates, Canon Jewish Character, Kidfic, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Scheming kids, Shenanigans, but its actually just parent trap, single father Erik, single father charles, teenage angst, teenfic, the twins and david think theyre pulling off a reverse parent trap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 03:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastian2017/pseuds/sebastian2017
Summary: Wanda and Pietro do /not/ want their father marrying Charles Xavier and changing up all their lives. No chance at all. Luckily, David doesn't want his father getting married, either. Perhaps an alliance will benefit them all.





	Under the Same Roof

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing this on and off for... uh... almost two years? lol so I'm glad it's finally finished
> 
> CWs: mentions of alcohol, typical teenage boy swearing, mentions of food, lmk if you'd like anything added!

The twins’ first sign that the day is about to go amiss should probably be how their father starts talking out of the blue. 

“Say, kids, do you remember what I’ve told you about Charles?” Erik says, glancing at them through the rearview mirror. 

Pietro stills. He looks to Wanda and they make the briefest moment of eye contact before he nods. Of all the times for their father to bring up Charles Xavier, the car ride to the twins’ b’nai mitzvah party sees like an especially strange one. Pietro and Wanda know that their father has been seeing someone for the last few months. Even Lorna’s already been told and as the baby of the family, she’s the last to be told about any of these things. So it’s not like it catches them entirely off guard when Erik starts dropping Charles Xavier’s name more and more often around them these days. That much is fine by the twins. When they only hear about the man every once in a while, it doesn’t feel entirely real, and it’s certainly much easier to ignore. But now, it seems like their father means to continue with this train of thought, instead of bringing it up briefly and immediately moving on. 

Sure enough, Erik goes on. The hesitation is almost palpable in his voice. “The three of you are going to get to meet him today.” 

“Wait,  _ what? _ ” Pietro exclaims, at the same time that his sister lets out a disbelieving squeal. 

“Charles is coming to the party,” Erik says again, confirming Pietro’s fear that he’d heard right and it hadn’t been a temporary spasm of his hearing. A temporary spasm of his hearing was the much preferred alternative here. 

“But it’s our party, Dad! Shouldn’t we get to pick who’s invited or not?” Wanda points out, frowning. She strains against her seatbelt to lean up closer to the front seat. “This doesn’t seem very fair.” 

Piero nods stubbornly. He joins his sister in leaning up closer to their father. Poor Lorna is left smushed between the two of them in the middle seat. “Yeah! We shouldn’t have to have him there if we don’t want to.” 

“I’ve already invited him and he’s already agreed, so it’s too late for that. I’m afraid I’m not bringing this up for debate,” Erik insists. He ignores the twins pressing closer and closer to him, something that happens more often than he’d care to admit. 

“Daaaaad,” Pietro whines, kicking against the back of the seat in frustration. “I don’t want him at our party!” 

“Pietro, stop kicking. Charles went through a bar mitzvah a few years back with his own son and he was excited to come and celebrate for you two. You’re lucky he didn’t come to the service this morning, in fact. So I don’t want to hear any more complaining from you both.” Erik gives them both The Look, which gets them to sit back down normally in their seats. Does it get them to stop complaining, though? Not a chance. 

Pietro sighs dramatically and flails back against the seat. “You’re ruining our party, Dad!”

“Yeah, our day is ruined,” Wanda whines in quick succession of her brother.

Lorna looks between her siblings and then to her father again. She’s not super pleased about meeting their father’s boyfriend on the same day there’s already so much going on, but she also knows her siblings are unbelievably dramatic. So she just shrugs about the whole situation. “Are Bubbe and Opa still going to be there?” she asks. 

“Of course, darling! And they’ll be meeting Charles for the first time as well.” Erik nods. 

“Oh. Okay.” Lorna shrugs and that’s that. 

For the rest of the drive to the community center, Erik finds strength in knowing that at least one of his children is semi rational, even while the other two do nothing but whine and complain at the top of their lungs.

  
  
  


\-----

  
  
  


Through the whole party, the twins alternate between having the time of their lives when they're dancing with their friends, to endless sulking when they so much as glance at Charles. Erik had known to accept it, so he does his best to leave them be for tonight. His parents are mostly amused, remembering how much of a pain Erik had been at that age. The children are like him. They need some time to get their sulking out of their system and then they can move forward. Erik gives them a week before they give Charles a proper chance and realize they actually like him. 

Unfortunately, Charles is less optimistic about the whole thing. For the first couple of hours of the night, he just sits with Erik and his parents, fussing and worrying. “Your kids hate me, Erik. They haven’t met me and they hate me,” he laments. 

“Don’t be so dramatic. They don’t hate you,” Erik says, shaking his head. 

Charles scoffs. Clearly, he think Erik is greatly undermining the situation. “We’ve been here three hours and not only have they not said even said hello to me, they’ve also avoided coming by this table at all. They haven’t even talked to you or your parents, just to avoid coming near me!” 

“I wouldn’t take it so personally, dear. They’re teenagers. Sulking is just what teenagers do,” Edie assures him, patting his hand. Like the children, this is her first time meeting Charles. Unlike the children, she’s taken to him very quickly. 

Jakob is quick to agree. “You should have seen Erik at that age. He was an insufferable little shit, no way around it. His kids just happened to inherit it from him.” 

“‘He’s right. I was awful. The kids just got it all from me. They’ll come around to you, I promise,” Erik says. 

Charles sighs and leans back in his chair, glancing once more to the group of sugar rushed middle schoolers dancing (read: jumping up and down) in the middle of the room. Who knew that him, world renowned professor and expert in his field, could so easily be brought to his knees by a pair of barely thirteen year olds. “Well, I hope you’re right.” 

  
  
  


\----

  
  


It’s just past eleven when Erik is finally on his way back home. Lorna has already been taken home by her grandparents a while back, after she’d started falling asleep in her chair. All the other guests - Charles included - are long gone, leaving Erik and the twins to do some of the cleaning and tidying up of the community center. The twins are still buzzing from the copious amounts of caffeine they’ve consumed tonight, but Erik is definitely ready to just crawl into bed. He ushers the twins to the car and breathes out a long sigh. 

“Right. All that time preparing and now we’re finally on the other side. I’d say we had a pretty successful weekend.” Erik glances at them through the rearview mirror as he pulls out of the parking lot. 

While just a moment earlier Pietro had seemed perfectly content, he now makes it a point to pout. “It was almost perfect. Almost.” 

“Almost, huh? Care to share what missed the mark?” Erik asks, though he’s already perfectly aware of the answer. 

“It’s dumb that Charles was there,” Pietro grumbles. 

“You didn’t even talk to him, Pietro. Hardly even looked at him,” he points out. “This was important to me and because I’m important to Charles, it was important to him, too. It would have been great to have you three met, but at the end of the day, he was there for me. Not as some great big affront against you.” 

“And he couldn’t be there for you any other day, Dad? This was our day! If we didn’t want someone there, he shouldn’t have been there,” Wanda says. 

Without Pietro’s whining and grumbling detracting from the argument, they really do have a point. But Erik is stubborn to a fault and there's no chance he’ll own up to it. “Well, the party’s over and you both spent the entire evening being rude to Charles, so I suppose we’ll both have to stay disappointed.” 

Pietro rolls his eyes. “It was unfair and you know it.” 

“That’s enough out of both of you. And we’re grabbing breakfast with your grandparents in the morning, so straight to bed when we get home.” Erik ignores their groans and complaints and simply drives the rest of the way in silence. 

  
  
  


\-----

  
  


Off in the Xavier household, things aren’t exactly any more peaceful. David’s been grumpy about Erik since their very first date, but he’s been especially upset since the twins’ party. He hasn’t been a fan of any of his father’s relationships, but at least most of those had been brief flings. (No point in trying to keep even the shortest of relationships secret in a household where everyone can read each other’s minds). Erik Lehnsherr, however, is certainly not some weeks-long fling. Erik Lehnsherr isn’t some ditzy, pretty young intern dressed in Banana Republic and without a single responsibility in the world. No. Erik Lehnsherr is a single father well into a career, far more handsome than pretty. Not his father’s type at all and David knows that’s reason to worry. He’s sort of nauseous even just thinking about it. 

Erik and his father are going on six months now and David is well aware they’re both starting to consider introducing their children to each other. Once that’s done? David knows it’s just about over. That’s commitment, no doubt about it. And David? He’s fucking terrified of it. 

There aren't many secrets in the Xavier household. On Charles’ part, it’s hard to keep secrets when David hears through practically any mental block; and on David’s part, no matter the secret, he’s usually bound to let it spill sooner or later during some late night breakdown or dissociative episode. It’s a weird dynamic they have going on, but it’s theirs and always has been. Which is why David is shocked to come home one Sunday morning, after a sleepover with some friends, to find his father with a head full of thoughts about the party for Erik’s kids he’d been to yesterday. David paused at the entrance of the living room, dropping his overnight bag at his side as he eyed his father suspiciously. 

“Dad. Dad, what the fuck?” David didn’t even have to elaborate what he was appalled by, he was sure his father had been expecting this fallout for a while now. 

Charles doesn’t look up from the papers he’s correcting, only gently scolds, “David, watch your language.” 

David is happy to ignore that. “You met Erik’s children yesterday. At their b’nai mitzvah. And you didn’t tell me. Dad. Seriously, what the fuck?” 

“Met is an overstatement, trust me,” Charles says. He relents with his papers, putting them aside as he pats the space next to him on the couch for David to sit down and join him. “But yes, I did at least make an attempt to meet them. Does that upset you? Why don’t we chat about it?” 

“Don’t talk to me like you’re my therapist. You know I hate that,” he mumbles. Despite the complaining, he does go to sit next to his father. “You were off with Erik’s family yesterday and didn’t say a word of it to me. Is that supposed to  _ not  _ upset me?” 

“I wasn’t aware you wanted every update on my dating life, David. Erik and I are having dinner at that nice Italian place down 47th on Monday. Do you want every detail about that, too?” he offers.

David doesn’t look over to him, but he knows, he just  _ knows  _ that his father is doing that stupid sarcastic single eyebrow raise he does sometimes. Which is simply infuriating. “Don’t act dumb! You know what I mean. This isn’t just dinner together. It’s meeting kids. That’s a-” He pauses abruptly as, suddenly, his father’s mind is flooded with a guilty recollection of chatting with Erik’s  _ parents _ all night long. “Oh, fuck.  You met his kids  _ and  _ his parents? That’s huge! Were you planning on not telling me anything until the moving trucks showed up one day?” 

“David, come on. There’s no need to be so dramatic,” Charles insists. “Yes, I met his family, but we’ve been dating for half a year now. It was going to happen sooner or later. I don’t see why that’s affecting you so much.” 

David loves his father. He really does. But sometimes Charles is absolutely clueless with his actions. He’s not too sure how to explain. It doesn’t help that his head is beginning to feel all jumbled up the way it does when he gets too stressed out. “You’ve been dating, and now the next step is meeting each other’s families, and the step after that is moving in together, and if some man and his three kids move in with us, everything’s going to be so  _ different  _ around here.” 

“Oh, David. I’ll always have time for you, you know that, don’t you? Nothing can change us, not even if there were a hundred kids around,” he promises. Charles shifts closer to him and reaches to get an arm around his shoulders. 

David dodges out of its way first, though. He’s had enough feelings for today so spouting off any excuse and leaving really seems like the best plan right now. “That’s not even what I meant. What I meant was - never mind, it doesn’t matter. I have to go do homework. Don’t worry about lunch, I ate at Remy’s.” 

And with that, David disappears upstairs to commence his latest sulking session, of which there are plenty. 

  
  


\-----

  
  


A few days later, Erik’s parents are all packed up to leave back to Germany once more. It’s always sad to have to drop them off in the airport after their visits, but they’ve all become unfortunately accustomed to it by now. Actually, Wanda’s sort of become strangely fond of it by now. Dropping their grandparents off at the airport always means a day off from school for them. She and Pietro are in middle school now. They’ll do  _ anything  _ for a day off. Even if it means being six people uncomfortably squished into a five person car for a weepy car ride to the airport. 

When they finally reach the airport, the car gets impossibly weepier. And to be honest, most of it is all their Bubbe, and a few tears here and there that Dad would never admit to shedding. Still, between them, it’s enough tears that Wanda thinks they might drown in them. When the car pulls to a stop in the drop-offs lane, it’s practically a race between her and Pietro to see who can exit the car faster. They’re thirteen now. They’re too old for all this crying and feelings! 

Still, Wanda gets a lump in her throat as she goes to hug her grandmother goodbye. “So I guess we’ll see you at Rosh Hashanah? 

“Hopefully,” Edie agrees, nodding. She smiles, sadness in her every motion as it always is on drop off days. She pats Wanda’s cheek lovingly, before gently squeezing her chin as she makes Wanda look her in the eyes. “Now, Schatz, I know your brother is as stubborn as your father and there’s no chance of getting it through his head, but…. He tends to follow what you do, so…. Give your father’s new man a chance, why don’t you?” 

Wanda sighs. To be fair, she should have seen this coming. Her grandma is the softest of the whole lot of them. Wanda just hugs her grandmother once more. “We’ll see, Bubbe. We’ll see.” 

  
  
  


\------

  
  


It’s Pietro who comes up with their plan of action. He’s not usually the planner among them, but he does have his occasional moment of brilliance. He and Wanda’s school shares a building between middle schoolers and high schoolers, and even though they both avoid the high schoolers whenever possible - they stick out enough being the Jewish mutant kids with a dead mom, they don’t need to add to it by trying to hang out with older kids - they’ve still spent enough time in the building to know a thing or two about the high school students. 

 

More importantly, to know that in the eleventh grade, occupant of locker 359, was David Haller, who threw the craziest parties of the upper school. David Haller who had once been rumored to drink an entire bottle of vodka in one morning. David Haller who allegedly supplies half the school with their weed. David Haller who seems to have a new girlfriend every week. David Haller who is probably the coolest teenager to ever live. Most importantly, David Haller who is Charles Xavier’s son and, if they do nothing to stop it, might end up as their step brother some day. 

“It’s the perfect plan, Wanda!” Pietro says, as they walk into school together one morning, not long after The Incident. “I bet David Haller hates the situation as much as we do. If we teamed up, and went at them from both sides, I bet we could beat them out!” 

“Sure. Do you want to go get eaten alive by high schoolers on the third floor or should I?” Wanda rolls her eyes and steps around him to walk to her locker. 

Not that it’s very helpful. Pietro’s locker is the one right above Wanda’s, and he has to go there anyway to get his first period books. Just to be a bit more of a nuisance, as any brother should be, Pietro plops his bag down in front of Wanda’s locker when she tries to open it. “How bad could the high schoolers really be? I’ll go if you’re so scared!” 

“I’m not  _ scared _ . I just don’t want any drama, Pietro. Unlike you, I like having friends more places than just XBox,” she scoffs. 

“Oh, fine. I’ll start moving stuff out of your room to make space for Xavier and his son to move in! Since that’s what you want apparently.” Pietro huffs, opening his locker with far too much force. 

“Ugh, you’re dramatic and impulsive - even for a teenage boy.” Wanda huffs, grabbing her social studies textbook and stuffing it away before she stands and grabs Pietro’s hand to tug him along behind her. “Come on, then. Let’s go find Haller before homeroom.”

“Wait. Right now? I haven’t figured out what to say yet!” 

“Too bad! You should have figured that out before saying anything at all.” 

“Wandaaaa!” 

Pietro lets himself be tugged along to the upper floor at his sister’s snail speeds, because when she’s made up her mind about something, there’s absolutely no fighting it. Well, that and the fact that he’s pretty sure he’d lose an arm if he tried to pry free from her grip now. If he had it his way, Pietro would have sprinted upstairs, left a note in David Haller’s locker, and dashed right back down before anyone could see him. Instead, now he and Wanda are left stalking through the hall surrounded by teenage boys who’ve already hit their growth spurt and could probably kill him if Wanda doesn’t let go of his hand fast enough for him to run away. 

“Pretty self important or you to assume anyone thinks about you enough to want to kill you,”  a voice behind him laughs. Pietro turns to find none other than David Haller staring him down. Naturally, Pietro nearly jumps up into his sister’s arms for protection. David just laughs more. “I couldn’t care less what you two brats are doing up here. What I do care about is that you’re standing in front of my locker. So beat it."

Wanda manages to maintain slightly better composure than Pietro does, and tries to shake his hand. “Hi, David. We’re-”

David cuts her off, rolling his eyes. “I know who you are. You’re Lehnsherr’s kids. And deaf, too, apparently. I asked you to move and… look at you both. Standing in the same spot.” 

“You don’t have to be a dick.” Pietro bristles. He’s considerably less intimidated now that he’s annoyed instead. “We don’t like your father anymore than you like ours. We think he’s an ass!” 

“No one’s allowed to call my father an ass but me,  _ Peter _ ,” he sneers. 

Pietro’s never had a great sense of self preservation while annoyed. Scowling, he steps forward and tries to shove David back. He fails, but at least the intent gets across. “Whatever you say,  _ Day-vid _ . Wanda and I came by because we’d actually like to be done with this and get our fathers apart. But if you’d rather just pout…” 

Before Pietro can grab Wanda’s hand and get out of here, David reaches out to hold them in place. “Wait. Okay, you have two minutes. What are the both of you thinking?” 

“Now you care?” Wanda mumbles, rolling her eyes. “We know our father, you know yours. We both hate the other. It’s a perfect partnership. You mess with things on your end, we mess with it on our end. Wear down at their relationship until they break and the three of us are free.” 

David doesn’t even have to think before he nods. “Get your little sister on it, too, and we have a deal. Your father’s a pushover. I bet if the little one agreed with you both, he’d cave in a heartbeat.” 

“Lorna does whatever we do,” Pietro promises. 

“Good.” He pulls his phone out and passes it to the twins to input their phone numbers. “We’ll text later. Now, get back downstairs. We’re definitely meeting outside school from now on.” 

“Uh huh. Great plan. Bye.” Pietro waves curtly before grabbing Wanda’s hand and getting the both of them out of there as soon as he can. 

Back in front of their lockers, safely away from sour high schoolers, Wanda goes to sit on the floor until the homeroom bell rings. “Well. David Haller is as much of an asshole as everyone says he is. This should be easy.” 

“I think he’s cool. Scary, for sure. But cool. I want to be like that when I’m in high school, too,” Pietro decides. 

Wanda scoffs. “You need to be rich and obnoxious for that. Like a couple million for allowance rich, I think.”  

 

\-----

  
  


At half past three, David is supposed to be long gone from school and on his way to his counseling session. Instead, he’s hanging around the parking lot waiting for the Lehnsherr kids to show up. They’re taking a small eternity. Normally, David might be annoyed, but he thinks his appointments are stupid, anyway, so the twins have lucked out by being slow on the one day David has something worse in his schedule than sitting on the hood of his car and doing math homework. It’s nearly four when Pietro finally zooms up next to him.

“Sorry we’re late. Someone,” Pietro glances back at Wanda, rushing towards them at a much more normal pace than her brother, “had stupid student council and didn’t want to skip.” 

“I really don’t care why you’re late. Let’s just bang out our plan of action and go our separate ways. The sooner our dads stop seeing each other, the better. They might start getting ideas now that they’re serious,” David says, shuddering in distaste at the very idea. The last thing he wanted was a stepfather and three little siblings around the place. “Do the two of you know when your father is going out on dates?” 

“Yeah! It’s the only time we stay home alone,” Pietro says quite proudly. Wanda steps on his toes not so subtly, so Pietro is quick to amend his statement. “With Lorna, I mean. Because she’s little, so she still needs a babysitter. For her. Not for us.” 

David looks decidedly unimpressed, but it would be far too much effort to tease them for such a comment, “Right. Well, your father and mine seem to trade off who plans every weekend, so when the two of you have information, text me, and I’ll do the same. And  _ only  _ when you have information. Don’t think this makes us friends in any way, okay? Having my number isn’t an invitation to start texting whenever you want. Got it?” 

“Yeah, yeah. We share information, we sabotage them from the inside, we’re not friends. You’ve made yourself perfectly clear, Xavier,” Wanda says. 

“You know that’s not my name, Lehnsherr,” David insists, rolling his eyes. 

“Uh huh. Whatever,” she scoffs, grabbing Pietro by the wrist to drag him away. “Xavier!” 

Pietro waits until they’re far away enough, glances behind his shoulder a few times, and finally breathes again. “Next time you try to get us killed, can you at least warn me first? Call me crazy, but I was hoping to make it to 14. At least!” 

“Look at the bright side, if he kills you, Dad definitely won’t marry his dad.” 

“Same if he kills  _ you  _ instead!” 

“Oh, not at all. If Dad lost his favorite child, the grief would make him do all sorts of crazy things. Like marrying Charles Xavier. If his least favorite child died? Well, he’d just be so annoyed he’d probably break up with him so he can sulk in the house more often.” 

“I’m going to push you off the train track one day. And I mean that.” 

  
  


\-----

  
  


For a few days, everything goes along just the same. Wanda and Pietro both have David’s number saved in their phones, but it goes unused, and at school, neither of them do so much as glance at once another. It’s terribly anti-climatic after their parking lot meeting, but they all simply continue as they alway have, as though nothing had happened. At least, until one day that Wanda notices their father continuously texting all through his dinner preparations, and smiling at his phone in a way she normally only sees on her boy crazy friends. When they sit for dinner, he lays his phone down face up next to him at the table and that’s the last thing Wanda needs to be sure he’s been texting Charles this whole time. Their father only gets dopey and ridiculous around his phone when texting his boyfriend. She makes eye contact with Pietro as they pull out their chairs, gesturing vaguely to their father’s cellphone and making wild eyebrow gestures that Pietro understands perfectly. 

“What happened to no texting at the table, Dad?” Pietro asks, grinning. 

Erik rolls his eyes and looks over at him. “Don’t try to be clever. Rules don’t apply to me, that’s the benefit of being the head of your own household.” 

Lorna giggles, making all their silverware vibrate in the process. “That’s not fair, Daddy!” 

“It isn’t?” Erik exclaims, acting shocked the amuse her. “Fine, I’ll put it away for now. But only because you made such a strong case, Lorna.” 

“I sure hope Charles knows he’s interrupting family dinner with all those… kissy face emojis or whatever he’s sending you.” Wanda acts as disinterested and annoyed as she always is when speaking about Charles, though she’s, of course, hoping that he’ll end up giving her the sort of information she’s after. 

“If you must know,” Erik says, “we’re working out the last details for a concert we’re seeing together on Saturday. Not that it should concern you. Since when have you been so adamant about no phones at dinner? Just last night I had to confiscate yours because you wouldn’t stop texting Kitty.” 

“That’s different,” she mumbles. Now that she’s gotten what she wanted to know, she’s not as interested in pretending to care about her father’s texting habits, and promptly goes back to her usual teenage sass and surliness over dinner. As soon as it’s over, she hurries upstairs, with Pietro following right behind her so they can get to their plotting. 

Pietro shuts Wanda’s bedroom door and flops down obnoxiously onto her bed. Wanda only lets it slide because they have bigger things to worry about right now. Pietro takes his phone out of his pocket, typing away too fast for Wanda to keep up. “Okay, so, I’ll text David. He can probably get more details so we don’t keep prying and make Dad suspicious. And then we’ll plan something! Then boom, no boyfriend by Sunday. It’ll be perfect.” 

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself. Dad’s the most stubborn person I know,” Wanda reminds him. Which should be unnecessary, considering they’ve had to deal with all of his nonsense for years, but Pietro’s one of the dumbest boys she knows, so she’s not surprised that he’s not thinking things through very well. “Let’s give it a few weeks, I’d say.” 

“Ugh. We may as well wait ten years!” he whines, flopping not unlike a fish. Wanda finds it fitting considering even goldfish have a better attention span than her brother. 

“I guess you’ll just have to deal with it. Now focus for two seconds and let’s figure out what to text David,” she says, reaching for Pietro’s phone. Unfortunately, he’s too fast for her to fetch it successfully, even when she attempts to grab it with her powers. She ends up grasping at air while Pietro sits up on her desk on the other side of the room. 

“What do you mean figure out? It’s just a text! You girls overthink everything,” he complains. “‘ _ Hey, David! Talked with Dad and there’s a date planned on Saturday. Wanna meet up and plan something out? See you soon!’  _ And then a smiling devil emoji, a thumbs up, a pensive little dude, and, duh, two flexing arm emojis. See? Nothing to figure out.” 

“Pietro!” Wanda groans in frustration and throws her pillow at him. That distracts him enough that she manages to send his phone flying towards her before he can hit send. “Two exclamation points? Suggesting to meet up before he does? Five emojis? We sound like the stupid, overeager middle schoolers he thinks we are.” 

“I mean…” Pietro frowns. He zaps over to her and reads the message draft over a few times before sighing. “Whatever. I guess you’re right. What do you think we should send?” 

Twenty minutes of arguing and wrestling for control of the phone later, they have their final draft of the text. A simple ‘ _ talked with our dad, there’s something on saturday. got any details?’  _ and absolutely no emojis. Wanda still thinks it might not be cool enough, but Pietro makes a rare good point that David is never going to find them cool. 

Sure enough, a few minutes later, they get a reply that says nothing except ‘ _ nope’.  _

Pietro grumbles under his breath when he sees it, a little annoyed that David always acts like he’s way too cool for them. Then again, if Pietro were the older one, he’s pretty sure he would act exactly the same. Luckily, he has a twin around to keep him from getting too obnoxious. Before he can get too caught up in thinking about all of this, Wanda distracts him with some video games and Pietro forgets all about their Xavier Problem. 

 

\----

 

David should have given them a heads up. He knows that. It’s kind of a dick move to show up at someone’s house unannounced and expect them to be ready in five minutes, but David won’t actually admit that he’s made a mistake here. He forgets things sometimes and when he does, there’s more important things - like his medication and eating and sleeping - to remember than texting a couple of middle schoolers about their fathers’ love lives. David is hoping that if he just exudes enough teenage annoyance when he talks to them, they won’t push back too much and will simply agree to come along. He can’t imagine two thirteen year olds have many other plans on a Thursday night. 

David leaves the car parked at the curb and goes up to the front door, ringing the doorbell once before knocking incessantly until someone answers the door, hoping to come across just the right amount of obnoxious and impatient. At least, that’s his intention, but he only succeeds in knocking once before the door is opened and he spots Pietro on the other side of it. Right. Superspeed. It would have probably done him well to remember that for next time. Not just to avoid inadequate planning, but also because it could come extremely handy in their sabotaging plans. 

“If you and your sister can be ready in five minutes, I can drive us to our dads’ date and we can fuck around with it a bit,” David says, not bothering with a greeting. They aren’t friends. They’re colleagues, at best. 

“Five minutes?” Pietro looks confused for half a second - probably an eternity for him - before staring at David, rather annoyed. “Dude. Five minutes isn’t a long enough heads up. You have our numbers! You couldn’t text?”

David tries to peer around Pietro’s shoulder to get a closer look inside, wondering why Wanda hadn’t come to the door as well. The two of them were usually inseparable, though it would make sense that they’re different at home. David would get sick of anyone after spending all that time together, even a twin sibling. “What could you possibly be doing that’s so important? I’m probably doing you two a favor, giving you something to do tonight.” 

“At this point I’m not sure if you’re actually dumb or just a douche on purpose,” Pietro says. “We’re watching our sister. We can’t just pick up and leave without a heads up.” 

“Bring her along, too. What’s the big deal?” David frowns. He’s an only child, of course, and his only cousin, Kurt, is two and lives in Austria. Needless to say, David isn’t quite experienced when it comes to small children. 

It must show, because Pietro looks at him with an impressive amount of condescending pity. “Dude. Today is Tangled Thursday. You’re not going to get her off the TV.” 

“...what?” 

Pietro rolls his eyes and finally invites David inside, closing the door behind him before leading him to the living room. It’s in an almost ridiculous state of chaos, with dolls and building blocks scattered all over the place. David’s pretty sure anyone walking through here without shoes would suffer permanent injury from stepping on so many legos. That does absolutely nothing to deter the youngest Lehnsherr sibling, who is jumping all over the place in a  _ very  _ energetic rendition of whatever song is playing on the cartoon on the television, while Wanda tries in vain to pick up the stray pieces of popcorn her sister is scattering all over. She skids to a stop when she spots David, staring at him as though he might bite. 

“Who are  _ you _ ?” she asks, looking up at him. 

“Oh. Uh.” David looks to the twins for help, but they seem perfectly content to let him flounder about on his own. Nervously, David crouches down in front of her. “Um, I’m David. Your dad is dating mine and your siblings and I don’t really like that, so we’re working together to break them up. But it’s a secret, okay? So you can’t tell your dad.” 

“Oh.” She calms down after that answer and the lamp in the corner stops clattering quite so violently. Still, she doesn’t look too happy. “You’re gonna have to go another day, cause we’re watching Tangled tonight.”

“...right. Well, it’ll be quick. I promise we’ll come right back and you can finish Tangled then,” he says. 

Lorna shakes her head stubbornly. “You can’t just  _ stop  _ and come back later! You’ve gotta see it all in one go or else it’s not as good. Duh.”

“Silly me. Um…” David looks to the twins, but they’re no help at all. They’re too busy snickering away at his useless flailing. He glances at the television instead, and he’s never seen Tangled, but they’re singing some silly show tune about dreams, so he figures that’s as good a strategy as any and looks to Lorna again. “I totally understand why you can’t come while you’re busy watching Tangled, but maybe we could work something out? I really, really, really want to do this tonight. It would be like a dream come true if you lent me your siblings, honestly.”

“A dream come true?” Lorna whispers. She steps closer to him and reaches up to hold his face between her hands. They’re rather sticky, David notices, and he still thinks kids are pretty gross, but he can see why some people would be endeared, he guesses. 

“Yeah, Lorna. A dream come true,” he repeats, nodding. 

“Dreams are very important,” she agrees. “Okay. We can pause the movie tonight, but you’ve  _ gotta  _ come to the next Tangled Thursday. Okay?”

“Deal,” David says. He tries to shake on it, but Lorna wraps their pinkies together instead and gives it a squeeze. It’s kinda cute, he’d admit. He stands once more and takes a second to smooth out his jeans again before looking at the twins smugly. “Ready to go?”

“No! I need my secret mission jacket first!” Lorna shrieks and sprints up the stairs.

“Uh…” David stares up the stairs. “She knows she’s waiting in the car, right?”

“Dude. She’s six. Of course she’s not letting you leave her in the car.”

Somehow, David ends up driving with three Lehnsherr kids in the back and the first Disney Kids playlist off Spotify playing on the radio. The secret mission jacket, apparently, is a Captain America hoodie Pietro had worn for Purim last year, which was far too big on Lorna, but seemed to not bother her in the slightest. It’s absolutely absurd and David wonders if perhaps this plan was doomed from the start, but by now, it’s far too late to turn back. 

Their parents are having dinner at some new French restaurant not so far from where the Lehnsherrs live, which is for the best, because David isn’t sure how long he can survive in a car with three kids and the soundtrack of Moana blaring. He doesn’t really have a plan for things once they arrive, beyond just ‘make things difficult for their parents, and he tells the twins as such. They’re on the same page, at least. Lorna tries to be helpful and provides them with a long list of suggestions for what they can do, but David is pretty sure they’re all just scenarios straight out of her favorite Disney films, and it’s probably for the best that they don’t go with her suggestions. Still, he might not have a lot of experience with children, but he’s not an absolute monster, and he pretends to be thoroughly impressed with all her ideas, even if they all require faraway kingdoms or fairy godmothers. They do have a witch in their midst, but probably better they think of something else. 

When they arrive, David leaves the car at a nearby dog park and they waste another five minutes convincing Lorna that the dogs will be there some other time and to please come along with them and not cry.  David definitely needs to put a stop to this relationship before it goes anywhere else. He can’t live with little siblings like this around. 

There’s a little boutique next to the restaurant, which is incredibly convenient, as they can just wander about the racks out front and pretend to look through clothes while David keeps a mental eye on the restaurant. He could have honestly done this from the comfort of his own bedroom, but at least here, if they’re closer, the twins can be involved, too. (And Lorna, maybe, but she can’t even control her powers yet, so David hesitates to assign any task beyond just cheerleader to her.) 

“They didn’t get here too long ago. They’re only just now getting drinks,” David tells them, staring off towards a wall as he dips in and out of people’s minds while also making sure to steer clear of anywhere his father will notice him. “It’d be a shame if an unexpected gust of wind knocks the wine into someone’s lap when the waiter brings it over, wouldn’t it?” 

“Such a shame,” Pietro agrees, catching on immediately as he grins. David is about to offer to distract the people in the restaurant briefly, so no one will think much about the blur passing through, but in the time it takes him to blink, Pietro is still standing in front of him, only nibbling away contently on a piece of bread he had definitely not been holding before. “Done!” 

“Already? Shit. You’re faster than I thought,” David admits. 

Lorna hugs her brother’s leg proudly. “Pietro is the speediest in the whole wide world.” 

“He’s also got the biggest head of any boy in the whole wide world, so I’d appreciate if we stop this little Pietro love fest now,” Wanda insists, prying Lorna off their brother’s leg. 

The shop employees are beginning to get annoyed of them, loitering around indefinitely near the entrance and clearly not intending to buy anything, so David dips into their minds briefly, just enough to quell any suspicion and to make the three of them terribly uninteresting so they don’t even glance in their direction any longer. Once he’s sure they won’t have security called on them, David leaves the siblings to bicker among themselves while he dips back into the restaurant to see what’s come of their efforts. Pietro had done a good job, knocking red wine all over Charles’ lap and leaving no one suspicious that it had been anything except a clumsy waiter. 

David feels oddly proud of their work, but he hardly gets to enjoy it before he realizes his father and Erik are both packing up to leave. “Fuck. Maybe we overdid it. They’re leaving.” 

Wanda stops her attempts at punching Pietro’s shoulder too quickly for him to dodge and turns to look at him. “Already? That’s good, isn’t it? We ruined their date.” 

“It’s great. Except for the part where we won’t have time to get the three of you back home fast enough to avoid your dad finding out,” David points out. 

“Oh.” 

David looks around quickly, all too aware of how quickly his father is getting their bill squared off and heading to the entrance. They could probably duck into a shop and avoid being seen, but it won’t fix the problem of getting home before Erik. Ugh. It’s been a few weeks since he got into trouble like this and if his father finds out the whole truth, David will definitely never hear the end of it, but a mediocre plan is better than no plan at all. 

David ushers the Lehnsherr children onto the sidewalk, giving them a push back towards the car and slipping the keys to Lorna. “You three hurry up and get to the car. I’ll distract them here for a minute and then get back. We’ll take it from there.” 

They hesitate half a second, until David gives them another push and they scurry off. His dad is pulling his coat on again to leave and David knows he only has a few more seconds at best, but thankfully, one of the restaurant’s valet boys is running past just now and it’s no great effort on David’s end to reach into his mind and fill him with an inexplicable urge to stop, step towards David, and punch him square in the face. 

He’s reeling back from the fist to his jaw just as his father is stepping out of the restaurant. An elderly woman passing by with her small dog lets out a scandalized scream, which is just perfect, as it draws Charles’ attention straight to them and not to where the Lehnsherr kids are just now rounding the corner. As he spits up some blood, David wishes he’d had enough sense to make the guy ease up on the punch a bit, but at least it got the job done. David makes sure the nagging urge to fight persists in his mind, so he’ll fight back when David lunges back at him. It’s no good to just be a victim in all this. Not nearly believable enough, given David’s streak for trouble. 

“David!” Charles yells out, leaving Erik’s side to run over to him. Huh. Double win, David concludes. He gets in a half hearted punch to the valet’s gut before his father is between them, prying them apart with well practiced motions. “Good God, David. What-what are you doing here? And what on earth are you fighting for?” 

_ He looked at me funny _ , David thinks, and the valet obediently says out loud, “He looked at me funny!” 

Charles frowns, looking at David suspiciously before glancing back to the valet boy. “He looked at you funny so you took a swing at him?” 

“...yes?” he answers, looking a bit more confused now. Damn. David clearly needs to get more practice on this in. 

At the very least, his father doesn’t call him out on it on the spot. Some man in a suit from the restaurant exits and ushers the valet boy inside, likely for a scolding before he gets fired. David feels mildly guilty over it. Some other manager is trying to fuss over him while rambling apologies to his father, but Charles waves him off quickly and even leaves a ridiculously large tip at the valet desk for their troubles. He’s cleaned up enough of his son’s messes by now. When that’s squared away, and David’s been handed a napkin to wipe off the blood around his mouth, Charles looks him up and down, arms crossed sourly over his chest. By now, Erik has joined him, just barely concealing his amusement as he inspects the bruise blooming on David’s jaw. It does absolutely nothing to dampen his sour mood. 

“You never did answer what you were doing here,” Charles says, frowning at him. 

“I was…” David frowns, glancing around him for a second before settling on the store they’re in front of and shrugging. “Shopping.” 

Charles looks at the store incredulously and raises his eyebrow into the displeased, condescending look David is more than used to by now. “Shopping? At a women’s fashion boutique?” 

“Yes. Do you have a problem with that? Come on, now, Dad, I knew you were lots of things, but I didn’t know you were a bigot! The weather’s getting warm again, perhaps I was in search of a summer dress to show off my legs,” David says, smirking at him. He’s been caught, he knows, and it’s a bit upsetting, but it’s much easier to just pretend to be taking the whole thing in stride and live up to his too cool, nonchalant teenage reputation. 

“Nothing in there is quite your color, David,” Erik comments, glancing inside briefly. 

David laughs, despite himself, and shrugs. “Why’d you think I didn’t get anything?” 

“Thanks for your help, darling.” Charles sighs and if nothing else, losing his momentum eases at his harshness and he steps forward again, this time to look over David carefully and make sure he isn’t too hurt. “Go home, David. Do you have your car here?”

“It’s a couple blocks away,” he says, hoping his father won’t try to walk him there or something equally ridiculous. “See you at home?” 

“Not quite yet. Erik and I have just had a last minute change of plans. I’ll still be home late, so don’t wait up. Though please do text me once you’ve arrived,” Charles insists, dabbing away at the last of the blood on David’s lip before he steps back. 

“Oh.” David frowns. It wasn’t entirely successful, then, if they’re still going on their date. David hopes it increased tension between, at least, and the rest of their date would be horribly tense and awkward. “Right. Well, see you then. Bye.” 

David turns and rushes off before Charles can decide he wants to follow and as soon as he’s rounded the corner and gone out of sight, starts running as fast as he can to reach the car. He’s happy to see that the Lehnsherr kids are already settled inside the car. David got into the driver’s seat and made quick work of pulling out of the parking spot. He realizes belatedly he should have probably double checked that the kids are all wearing their seatbelts, or at least Lorna, but thankfully, when he glances back in the rearview mirror, everything seems to be in order. 

“So, good news,” David starts, “we’ll have enough time to get you all back home without your father beating us there. Bad news, they didn’t actually cancel the date, just decided to move it somewhere else for the time being. So… not really successful, just mildly annoying.” 

“What?” Pietro lets out an annoyed groan. “So that was a waste of time.” 

“Daddy says as long as we tried our very best, nothing is a waste of time!” Lorna says, grabbing her big brother’s hand and giving it an encouraging squeeze. 

“Lorna’s right.” Wanda pats her knee gently. “It’s a whole war, not a battle. We’ll chip away at them and they’ll give up eventually.” 

“For now, let’s just get the three of you home before your father realizes you were with me,” David says, driving just a tad too fast in the rush to get them home. He wants to be able to officially declare the night a success, because at this point, having escaped at the last minute like this and not get caught was definitely considered a success, even if the date hadn’t been completely ruined. 

 

\----

 

“So should we tell the kids we know they’ve been scheming together or…?” 

Erik lets out a soft laugh as he opened the car door for Charles. Their original dinner plans wouldn’t have worked regardless, since there wasn’t enough on the menu to properly accommodate Erik’s kosher diet, but no doubt the children had gone home thinking they’d played a big role in the change of plans. “Let them have a bit of fun. Perhaps some good will come of it.” 

“Either all the time spent together will make them friends or they’ll organize well enough to overpower us once and for all. I suppose we’ve no choice to but to wait and find out,” Charles says. 

“Big risk, big reward.” Erik shrugs. “If it’s the latter, at least we won’t be around to suffer the consequences.” 

“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose. What do you say we stop at a deli and have some bagels while we give the kids enough time to get back home?” 

“Sounds absolutely wonderful.” 

 

\----

 

David doesn’t try to interrupt Disney movie nights after that. Wanda thinks it’s a bit funny, that he’d learned so quickly when the annoyance came from a six year old half his size, but she’d witnessed Lorna’s tantrums first hand. She knew they truly were no joking matter. Perhaps they should have threatened David with Lorna a long time ago, at least enough that he’d respect them a bit more. They’ve met up a few times since that first time, but nothing has been particularly fruitful. 

Sometimes, they’ll try to meddle from home. Pietro will take their father’s belongings to the end of the world so he can’t get dressed properly. Wanda will jinx the car radios and traffic lights, sometimes, to get stuck on the most annoying channels and always be on red when they approach. Nothing paralysing, but annoying enough that the annoyance will bleed into their relationship. Even Lorna has lent a hand sometimes, using her lack of control with her powers to their advantage to create various metal related emergencies that their father needs to come home early to fix. 

When they meet up with David and go to the dates, it’s much harder to do anything without getting caught. Observing has its own merit, though. Wanda had hoped that while watching - observations like a scientist on a safari, definitely not spying or stalking - they’d get front row seats to the relationship deteriorating, but unfortunately, they’ve seen none of that. If anything, their fathers have just grown increasingly closer. Everytime they laugh off a disaster, Wanda grows increasingly worried. When David approaches them in the school hallway one day, looking rather grim, she can only imagine he has the worst sort of news. 

“I have bad news,” he announces, standing by the twins’ lockers. David’s grown far more lax about his ‘no talking in school’ rule since they’d spent more time together. 

Pietro frowns. “...I’m almost afraid to ask. Are you sure it’s not the sort of bad news we can ignore?” 

“My father went out shopping for engagement rings last night. So no. Not the sort of news we can just ignore, I’m afraid,” David says. He grimaces while telling the story, as though even the memory is difficult to stomach. 

“Oh no…” Pietro grows worryingly pale as he leans up against his locker. Wanda’s pretty sure he’s being dramatic, but if he did faint, she wouldn’t be totally surprised either, honestly. 

Truth be told, Wanda’s not entirely surprised. They’d been handling everything spectacularly well, and she worries they might have even made them grow closer. Not that it matters much. Their dad wouldn’t have introduced Charles to Bubbe if marriage hadn’t been an option since the beginning. Still, it’s disheartening news to receive. “Does he know when he’s proposing yet?” 

“They’re going to a picnic tomorrow afternoon,” he answers. 

It’s so painfully cliche and romantic that Wanda has to gag at the thought. “Of course they are. We’re going, right?” 

“I don’t know how much of a difference we’ll make if he’s already gone and bought a ring,” Pietro mumbles. 

“At least we’ll go out with a bang. One last adventure so we have the memories to get us through life as an Xavier-Lehnsherr household.” Wanda sighs. “Who knows? We might even get lucky.” 

That’s how the four of them find themselves in David’s ar the next afternoon, doing a stakeout of the park while they wait for their fathers to arrive. Lorna doesn’t fuss so much anymore, so long as she can play with David however she wants. David’s even more of a pushover than she and Pietro are, so Wanda isn’t at all surprised that Lorna’s managed to charm her way to the passenger seat now that they’re parked and is occupying herself by painting David’s nails a fitting shade of black while they’re waiting. 

She does, however, tend to ask no less than a million questions. “Why’d you say this was our last time going out together, Davey?” 

“Well… My Daddy was going to ask yours to marry him,” David explains. 

“Oh!” Lorna gasps and it’s only Pietro’s quick reflexes that prevent her from spilling the nail polish all over the car. “That’s so romantic. It’s like the prince and princess at the end of the movie! Oh, oh! Does that mean you’ll be my brother now, Davey?” 

“Uh…” David glances at them for help answering, as he often does, but Wanda just shrugs. “Well, if things go really well for us today, no, I won’t. But if not… Then yeah. I guess I will be your brother.” 

“Then I hope things go really bad for us today so I can have two big brothers!” Lorna exclaims, lunging across the console to hug him. 

Only one of David’s hands has been painted and it’s not even dry yet, but Wanda takes pity on him and casts a quick hex on him so the polish won’t rub off everywhere. She’s not sure what to make of all this. She’d known Lorna was rather fond of David, and even her and Pietro had sort of warmed up to him eventually, but she didn’t think Lorna was quite to the point of wanting him for a brother. That didn’t mean too much, she supposed. Lorna could be affectionate like this with just about anyone. She just hoped she wouldn’t be too sad by later today and end up ratting them all out because of it. 

They hadn’t schemed for so long only for an overly excited six year old to get them all caught in the end. Wanda reaches forward and helps get Lorna off David once more, getting her to sit down properly. “Well, if you like David so much, we can still see him every once in a while. We don’t need a new stepdad for that.” 

“I guess,” she huffs. “That’s not how the movies are s’posed to end, though!”  

“Life’s not always a movie, squirt,” David says, but Wanda can tell that Lorna being sad does get to him. 

“I hate to interrupt this little feelings fest, but Dad just walked up and is getting the picnic all set up,” Pietro interrupts. 

He points out the back window and sure enough, they can just make out their parents laying out a blanket and their food. It’s probably for the best, honestly, to steer away from this topic. Lorna might get too sad thinking about it otherwise, and none of them are prepared to deal with that. Still, David is the one to pick Lorna up when they exit the car and he carries her to the tree they settle under, which is close enough to keep a watchful eye on everything happening, but just spacious enough to avoid being in their parents’ line of vision. 

“I could probably grab the ring from your dad, dump it in a river two states over, and be back before they’ve even finished setting up for their picnic.” 

“For sure. I could probably send a gust of wind to knock over their wine bottle or something.” 

“Maybe I can get into some joggers’ heads and make them all change their routes to run through here and totally ruin the mood.” 

“Yeah.” 

It’s painfully obvious how unenthusiastic they all are about their new ideas. Despite all they’ve said, none of them makes any move to actually do anything. Wanda doesn’t want her father to get married, of course, but now that it seems an inevitability, it doesn’t quite seem like the end of the world anymore. Charles was a bit annoying, yes, but so was her dad, and they still put up with him. And David would leave for college in another year and a half, even if they hadn’t become sort of friends these last few months, despite the rules they’d set up at the beginning of this whole thing. He’d still deny it, but Wanda’s pretty sure even David’s warmed up to them. Lorna had certainly managed to befriend him. 

David is the one who ends up breaking their silence, after a few minutes of just sitting and watching their fathers sip on wine and snack on grapes and cheese. It’s disgustingly domestic, but David says, “You know, sometimes even the best soldiers have to take strategic losses. Maybe this war doesn’t actually end with them getting married. We can just… you know. Let this happen and keep going at them from under the same roof.” 

“We’d get a lot of done as step siblings,” Pietro agrees, nodding slowly. “And they couldn’t just separate us if we got too rowdy. We’d be living together, after all.” 

“And then you’d be my step brother, Davey!” Lorna exclaims pulling him into one of her big hugs. 

“We’re still not friends, though,” David warns the twins. Wanda finds it significantly less threatening than the first time, considering he’s holding their baby sister in his lap. 

“Of course not,” Wanda agrees, nodding. “I guess we should head back home, then? And work on our shocked faces when they come home and tell us they’re engaged.”

Lorna shakes her head, wiggling loose from David’s arms. “I want to go say hi to Papa! And tell him that I have two big brothers now.” 

“Lorna, wait!” Wanda tries to grab her, but Lorna’s already started running off towards their parents. 

Pietro would have been fast enough to catch her even before she started yelling, but he tends to panic in these situations and be no help at all. Sure enough, a moment later, the three of them are still sitting uselessly by the tree and Erik is looking at Lorna rather confused as she topples into his arms for a hug. David swears under his breath and decides better to get ahead of the situation and grabs a twin in each arm to haul them out towards their fathers. They both rumble out complaints, but David has their powers under a firm telepathic lockdown so they can’t run off somewhere. Wanda wouldn’t actually runaway. She wouldn’t abandon her little sister like that. Pietro, however… Well, she’ll gladly help David with using her powers to keep him in place. He has a tendency to run away when things are beginning to grow difficult. 

“We heard the news!” David says, though neither of them is even wearing a ring yet and there would have been no way to ‘hear the news’ but David’s telepathy. Wanda supposes that’s commonplace in the Xavier household. “We came to congratulate you and celebrate properly and all that.”

Charles looks at the four of them suspiciously, since Erik is busy helping Lorna settling on his lap, but this is a battle he’d lost long ago. So he just sighs and shakes his head as he pulls the ring box out of his pocket. “I hadn’t actually asked yet, thank you.” 

“I could feel it in your pocket all night, so this is as good a way to ask as any,” Erik says, shrugging as he holds his hand out towards Charles. (Not so much holds it willingly as gets it shoved forward by Lorna, but the end result is the same.) “Just like I’m sure you already knew I was going to say yes, you fool.” 

“I was rather confident, yes,” Charles agrees, smiling as he leans forward to give Erik a kiss while putting the ring on. 

It’s what he hopes to do, anyway, but it seems all four kids have different ideas and take action without having even needed to plan it. Wanda panics and sends forward a spark that forces them to jolt back, Pietro dashes forward to push their father back at the same time as David’s telepathy grabs onto Charles’ shoulders to tug him backward. Even Lorna thinks that adults kissing is yucky when it’s not animated and pushes reaches up to squish her hand against her father’s mouth, effectively ending any hope of kissing while they’re around. Charles looks mildly startled from it, while Erik just sighs a bit and presses a kiss to his daughter’s fingers before moving her hand away again. He’s lived with the twins in the house for thirteen years. Wanda knows he’s used to their shenanigans, even before he’d started dating. 

“You only get one kiss, Daddy! And it’s at your  _ wedding! _ ” Lorna scolds, giving Charles an equally stern look. 

“Yeah, you two. Have some decency. Save your purity,” Pietro snickers. His humor earns him a swat to the back of the head from their father, but Wanda thinks it’s more than worth it. She appreciates her brother’s sacrifice for all their sakes. 

“How very convenient the four of you happened to be here on this very day and know what we were up to,” Erik remarks. 

He knows what they’ve been up. Wanda had suspected as much before, but the way he’s looking at them now casts away whatever doubt she had left. He definitely knows. Oh well. They’ll have to work on being sneakier when they’re doing this all from their shared home. Or maybe not. It won’t really matter. It’s their shared home, after all. They can’t exactly keep them apart when they all live together. This might actually wind up being their strongest weapon yet. Wanda smiles sweetly at their father and shrugs. “Lucky coincidence, I guess?” 

“Very lucky indeed,” Erik mumbles, rolling his eyes. He reaches forward to pull Wanda down into a hug, since Pietro and Lorna are already down in his arms. Charles seems to think this is a wonderful idea and somehow, before she can even realize what’s happening and despite David’s grumbled complaints, they find themselves in a weird sort of group hug. “HaShem protect us when you kids are all under the same roof.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This might have a sequel? Depending on if it's well received and I have the energy for it. :) Thanks for reading, comments are super appreciated! <3 
> 
> for questions, prompts, or chatting I can be found on tumblr at [sebbym17](http://sebbym17.tumblr.com/)


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